Lake Ontario Colder Than Michigan & Huron This Year

[ut_falcon]

Check out the GLCFS Annual comparison of great lakes water temperature.

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/compare_years/compare_years_o.html

It's surprising that Huron and Michigan both have warmer surface temperatures and whole lake temperatures then Lake Ontario this year.  Looking back to 2013 and lake Ontario was warmer then both.  Helps to explain why fishing may be off / different again this year.

I think we had a colder winter / spring around Lake Ontario compared to the other great lakes this year. With Ontario having the deepest average depth of the Great Lakes it took longer to drain the temperature out of the lake over the last two cold winters and takes longer to heat it back up (compared to the other lakes).

[dvdegeorge]

I'd wager we've had more east wind than they have had this year

[Sk8man]

Lake Superior has the greatest average depth

[Silver Fox]

I'd wager we've had more east wind than they have had this year

X2

Fishing was just starting to set up till all this east wind the past 2 weeks. We will have great salmon fishing if it would just stay westerly for awhile.

silverfoxcharters.net

[ut_falcon]

Lake Superior has the greatest average depth

My mistake, Ontario has the second deepest average depth.

[tiogafishaddict]

We will know soon if there are many kings around. Could be a repeat of last year?

[Yankee Troller]

We will know soon if there are many kings around. Could be a repeat of last year?

 

The difference last year is we never had the Spring bite in the Niagara region, and it never showed all season consistently anywhere. Then we saw the poor returns in the rivers. This season we had over a month of slaughter in the Niagara region this Spring. They are out there! Well, they were......lots ended up in coolers. LOL

[JakeyBaby]

Looks like you will be heading to Florida sooner then you thought!

[steve-hamilton]

a slaughter of 8lbs to 14lbs kings....

 

no big kings were around this spring.

 

that was evident by the tournament and derby results.

[ut_falcon]

The ice was off erie a week earlier this year vs last, maybe that helped the spring bite this year?

[Big Water]

a slaughter of 8lbs to 14lbs kings....

no big kings were around this spring.

that was evident by the tournament and derby results.

Same here. I'm wondering if we're just depleting next year's stock.

[Patriot]

• hmmm

[ut_falcon]

Or the 8 to 14 pounders this spring are normally 14 to 20 pounds during a warmer year

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Both theories have merit. I am absolutely convinced the Salmon fishing pressure is cropping them in this smallest (by surface area) Great Lake. Neither NY or Ontario Province seems the least bit concerned that what may have been a good target number of planted Chinooks years ago is no longer appropriate. The number of predators in the water and in the air have increased exponentially, taking its toll before the now highly skilled fleet from both Countries begins cropping them. I do think its a combination of anglers nailing them early in their life AND the winters setting their growth back. There is also evidence that Lake Ontario Chinooks grow so fast with all the Alewives out there now that many are maturing early--resulting in smaller adults. This is because they are simply younger, NOT because of any baitfish shortage.  

[Sweet Caroline]

Logically speaking, highest catch rates in the past 10 years and declining weight of salmon does not indicate an overabundance of bait. In no way do I think we are as bad as Huron or Michigan but I can remember back as far as the late 80s and the bait was insane back then. You could forget catching a salmon from May –June when the bait was in. Maybe I’m just a better fisherman now but I never remember boating more than 2 or 3 salmon in a morning after April/early May until the fish came in mid August and then it was ON big time! I also remember the combat fishing labor day weekend at the Genny with huge 25-35Lb salmon the norm. It has been a long time since I have seen that sort of early mature bite at the river mouth. Seems counterintuitive that the Summer bite would be so slow and the fall bite so hot.  Kind of the opposite of what we have today… a hot summer bite with minimal June doldrums and weak Fall river mouth fishing for matures. My thought is back in the 80s and 90s when we had so much bait it was difficult to compete when fishing offshore. When the mature salmon moved in shallow in the fall and most of the bait was still out deep your catch rate skyrocketed. Also, when was the last time there was a confirmed 40lb salmon entered in tourney? I’ve heard hatchery selection may be a factor but there have always been plenty of 25-35lb adults to choose from to keep a decent gene pool going. Also, I don’t think anybody would disagree that we had a lot of bait back then so why didn’t those fish mature early as well. It is possible I guess that after all these years of salmon being in the great lakes that they are just now growing to the size of a smaller great lakes environment compared to the ocean. A new generation of fresh eggs would be an interesting experiment but I’m not convinced that is the answer. I remember hearing stories of the Lake Michigan captains putting a lot of pressure of the fisheries crew to stock more and more salmon and they crashed that fishery. Due to the difference in biomass productivity in L.O I think it would take a lot for us to reach that same crisis but I’m just having a hard time believing that the predator to prey relationship is that much out of control. Again due to the aforementioned logic I just don’t see that being the case.

Edited July 6, 2015 by A-Lure-A